I was sleeping in. Peter had called me just before bedtime and told me not to report to work until Monday because the bar would be closed for at least a couple of days. I had just returned to bed, luxuriating in my still rare, but increasingly more frequent sickness-free mornings, when my phone rang. I picked it up but didn’t recognize the number.

 

“Hello?”

 

“Alex? It’s Cain. I —”

 

I killed the call the moment I recognized his voice. There was nothing that man had to say that I wanted to hear. The phone rang again almost immediately and I pressed the button to ignore the call. A moment later, it rang again, and once again, I ignored it. For the next five minutes my phone rang almost continuously. I first set it to vibrate, then silent, so I didn’t have to listen to it buzz. It was always the same number and I finally turned the phone off just so I didn’t have to see the screen light up anymore.

 

When I finally crawled out of bed an hour later, I turned my phone on. It said I had thirty-five missed calls. That was just from when the phone was on. There was no guessing how many I missed after I turned it off. The phone signaled that I had a voicemail. I actually had seventy-one and my mailbox was full.

 

The moment I heard Cain’s voice on each message, I deleted it. At about message thirty, I stopped listening and was deleting messages as fast as my phone would allow me. I wasn’t even finished with my deleting when the phone signaled another call from Cain’s new number. I debated ignoring it, but decided he would just keep calling until I told him to leave me alone. I dropped out of voice mail and accepted the call.

 

“Thank god! Don’t hang up!” Cain cried.

 

“You can just go fuck yourself!”

 

“Alex, please! I just want to know if you are okay. Things have gotten out of control and… I just need to know if you’re okay.”

 

“Great! Peachy! Just another great day when someone tries to kill me! A woman died yesterday because of you. Or me.”

 

“What? What do you mean?”

 

“The new bartender, the one that replaced me? You remember her? They shot her, Cain. Four guys came in and gunned her down in cold blood. They probably thought it was me. Because of you, a woman is dead.”

 

He was quiet a moment. “I’m so sorry, Alex. I never meant for any of this to happen. Things have gotten out of hand. You need to come to Dallas where —”

 

“I’m not going any place with you. Not now. Not ever.”

 

“Alex! I can’t protect you there. The Bulls, they’ve lost it. They hit us yesterday and killed three of our guys. We’ve been on lockdown all night. We pulled all the family members together into the clubhouse for protection. I was on guard last night and that is why I couldn’t call.”

 

“Whatever,” I said. I couldn’t care less about his excuses.

 

“I don’t know how they found you. It should’ve been impossible. I haven’t told anyone about you or the baby. Only Thad knows that I have something working in New Orleans, but even he doesn’t know what. I got a new phone, a prepaid, in case they somehow had hacked into my phone records or were eavesdropping on my calls.”

 

“Well, you don’t have to worry over me anymore. We’re done. Finished. I never want to see you again.”

 

“I know you’re upset, and you have every right to be. I’ve dragged you into a mess that I never intended to. But can we put that behind us at least until we get this shit sorted out? For the sake of the baby? After that, if you never want to see me again, I guess I can accept that. But please, Alex, let me protect you and the baby.”

 

“Protect me? You have to be shitting me! It’s because of you that I’m in this mess!”

 

“Don’t you think I know that?” he cried in despair. “I never intended for this to happen! Nothing like this has ever happened before! I don’t understand what is going on! None of us do. The Bulls are being too bold. We can’t predict what they will do next. That’s why I need to bring you to Dallas. I can’t protect you where you are.”

 

“No. You just stay the fuck away from me. You and your club, you bring nothing but death and destruction. I should never have gotten involved with you.”

 

“Alex, please. We’ll get this sorted out. We can stick to our plan. I’ll leave the Hounds, but you have to give me the time to get this shit sorted out. We need the club now to help protect you and the baby.”

 

“Fuck you and the Hounds! You killed my parents and I don’t want to have a fucking thing to do with you!”

 

“What? What are you talking about? How did I kill your parents?”

 

“Not you, but the Hounds.”

 

“Who told you that? I told you, we don’t kill people, and especially not cops!”

 

“Oh yeah? You also told me what you did was safe! Now look! You lied about that, so you could just as easily be lying about everything.”

 

“I didn’t lie! None of this should be happening! None of this has ever happened before. We had our deal, and the Bulls had theirs. They have never made a move like this against us before. I wasn’t lying to you, Alex, and I’m not lying to you now!”

 

“I don’t believe you. My dad was investigating the Hounds for weapons smuggling. And just as he gets his big break, he ends up dead.”

 

“You told me, but how do you know it was the Hounds?”

 

“He told my grandparents just before he died.”

 

Cain was quiet for a long time. “I don’t know what to say. That was before my time, but that doesn’t sound something we would do. We have some old-timers that go back that far, but they don’t strike me as the cop-killer types. I’m sorry, Alex. I didn’t know.”

 

“Yeah, well, now you do.”

 

“Let me talk to the president about this, okay? He was around then, so he should know something. I’ll ask the other guys, too. Let me do some asking around and see if I can find out if what you say is true. I won’t deny it, because I don’t know, but I will tell you that it doesn’t sound like us – at least not now. You want to know the truth, don’t you?”

 

I paused and thought about what he said. All the evidence pointed at the Hounds, but it was all circumstantial. I would like to know if it was true or not, but I wasn’t sure I could trust him.

 

“How do I know you won’t lie to me?”

 

“I’ve never lied to you, Alex. I never will. If I find out we did it, I will tell you. I won’t admit it to anyone but you, but you deserve to know the truth.”

 

“Will they, the club, tell you if someone did it?”

 

“Yes. We don’t keep secrets from each other. It’s bad for the club. If I ask, they will tell me.”

 

I pondered a moment. “Okay. Thank you. I would like to know, for closure. But no matter what, we’re done, Cain. Do you hear me? We are finished forever.”

 

“I understand. I’m sorry, Alex. I really am. I never intended for any of this to happen,” he said and I could hear the sorrow in his voice.

 

“Maybe not, but it did, and I can’t live like this. It’s too much.”

 

“I know,” he said softly and then paused. “Goodbye, Alex. I’m glad I got to you know you. You’re going to make a great mom. I just wish… Don’t go back to work, okay? Not until we take care of the Bulls. And don’t go home. Stay somewhere else. Somewhere safe. As soon as I find out about your parents, and things have been taken care of and you’re safe, I’ll call you.” He paused for a long moment. “Take care of yourself,” he said then he was gone.

 

I tossed my phone aside and fell back onto the bed. I had trusted him. I had opened myself up to him and I took him at his word that he didn’t live the life I thought he did. And now this happened. It wasn’t fair! Just when I thought we were going to have something, it was snatched away from me.

 

Someone knocked on my door. “Alexandria?” Granny’s said. “Are you okay?”

 

“Yeah. I was just talking to Cain,” I rose from the bed and opened the door. “He called to see if I was okay. I told him to get lost.”

 

She came in and sat down on the bed beside of me. “Good. Nothing but trouble there.”

 

“I know. I wish none of this had ever happened. I should have never gone to bed with him. I should have never told him about the baby. I have made one mistake after another, and look where it has brought me. A woman is dead because of me.”

 

“Shhh…don’t say stuff like that. You couldn’t have known this would happen. Don’t blame yourself.”

 

“Who else is there to blame?”

 

“Blame those who shot her. Blame Cain and the Hellhounds. But don’t blame yourself.”

 

“Easier said than done,” I replied miserably.

 

Granny pulled me into a hug. “I know, honey. I know. But things have a way of working out if we just let them.”

 

“I hope you’re right,” I mumbled into her shoulder.